From Monday Night Football to the Open Championship, Mike Tirico can do it all.
“If you have ever turned on a television in the history of your life, you know this man coming here today,” GOLF’s Subpar co-host Drew Stoltz said.
Tirico made sports more entertaining for the last 35 years, bringing his boundless energy to every major event covered by ESPN and NBC. In doing so, he didn’t just research names, numbers, and statistics – he was privy to large-scale, structural changes in other sports, changes like the one we’re currently seeing in golf.
As a play-by-play broadcaster, it’s rarely Tirico’s job to offer his opinion, but that doesn’t mean he is without one. Particularly not on the topic of LIV Golf, and how the upstart league will affect the PGA Tour going forward.
“I think it’s going to force the PGA Tour to be better,” he said.
Politics aside, Tirico says, LIV Golf is simply a study in market forces. Now that there’s a competing tour, the PGA Tour will be forced to adapt. If they make the proper adjustments, the result will be better for everyone.
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This, Tirico explained to co-hosts Drew Stoltz and Colt Knost, is the effect of the competitor: “It makes us better because you know that people are going to catch you.”
Champagne sprays, festival-like entertainment, and one very outspoken commissioner, LIV Golf couldn’t be more different from the Tour. The PGA Tour has already made significant purse increases to compete, but do they have to make other adjustments?
“Competition is good,” Tirico said. “Checks and balances are really good.”
But for commissioner Jay Monahan and the Tour’s executive leadership team, strategic questions remain. How much change is good? How much change leaves the Tour losing its identity?
No matter what changes we see in the coming months, Tirico sees it as an opportunity for the PGA Tour to grow, revamp, and reshape – not suffer.
To hear more of Mike Tirico’s sportscasting stories and observations on Tiger Woods, check out the full Subpar interview below.